Visual edits: Power to the people

May 21, 2012

My colleague, JC, sent me these photos of a billboard advertising a new beachside housing development on some old industrial wasteland that is fronted by a dog beach (a place where owners can run their dogs freely). Over the past few years there have been moves by the local authority to shut down or shrink the size the dog beach, probably because the sight of dogs spoil the million-dollar ocean views from the high-rise apartments. The dog-loving residents have always turned out in mass protests, usually accompanied by local celebrities and the problem the goes away for another year or so.

JC said: “This morning I noticed this artistic edit to the large poster on the way to the beach. The original image had the boy running towards his ball lying on the sand. Now he is holding a yellow bag, which is the color of the dog droppings bag the City provides. The ball is now painted over with a silhouette of a dog doing what dogs do at dog beaches…”